Page 64 - Aug Sept 2016
P. 64

Violence and Violent Crime- The Gender Consideration
        assumes that women who commit                        system discriminates; women who kill

        offences chose to do so for pragmatic/               their [often abusive] husbands are con-
        rational reasons; classicists will be                victed of murder whilst men who kill

        jumping for joy!                                     their wives are convicted of manslaughter.
                                                             Thus, if convicted of murder which wom-
        In terms of victimization, women are                 en are, the only sentence available is life;
        largely accountable for rape or other                even when convicted of murder, men and

        sexual assaults but even here the                    women are still treated differently with
        amount of disproportionate statistical               tariffs higher for women than men.

        analysis is difficult given that male
        rape and male sexual assault is under-               Male perpetrators may be more selfish in
        reported and (in some countries)                     their approach to crimes; committing of-

        legally ignored. Stigma attached to                  fences which are directly of benefit and
        victims of sexual assault is horrendous  which give an immediate sense of gain.

        for female victims but this is more so               In violence, men use violence as a first,
        when victims are male. This is largely               rather than last resort, as it on two levels
        due to men being perceived as (i) the                it gets them what they want: the first is

        aggressors or (ii) physically able to                the object of their attention; the second is
        fight off an assault.                                status and self-belief in their own ability.

                                                             Violence for many men seems to be a way
        In England and Wales, legislation is                 to [re]assert their masculinity. Violence

        quite specific in terms of the crime of              committed by women - on the whole - ap-
        rape in that a penis must be inserted                pears to be a last resort; there was no other
        into either a vagina or the anal passage             way to get either in or out of a situation

        (or mouth); so whilst a victim may be                and thus violence was used.
        either male or female, the perpetrator

        must be male. In Scots law, the act of               Of course, there are criminal couples: men
        rape can only be committed by a man                  and women who work together - though
        on a woman; male on male sexual                      not necessarily in harmony - to make fi-

        assault is just that - sexual/indecent               nancial and other gains. Prostitutes have
        assault but not rape. Where victim                   for many years used (and been used by)

        and perpetrator are one and the same                 male pimps. The men offer protection,
        (e.g. an abused wife retaliates against              security from harassment whether this is
        her husband) there are inconsistencies               from other working women, volatile cli-

        between the genders. According to                    ents and other pimps who want to ‘muscle
        CEDAW, women are more likely to ‘to  in’ on the money earned by the prostitute.

        be killed than to kill’ but the legal

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